In this article we take a closer look at resistance to the practice of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in mining and energy projects in Guatemala. Collectivities resisting mining and hydropower projects in Guatemala are increasingly using the evaluations of EIAs conducted by international independent professionals. Reaching out to international experts is facilitated by local communities' engagements in transnational networks bringing together activists, NGOs, scientists, journalists and others. We argue that resistance movements resort to international professionals to challenge the limits imposed on them by the national legislation and institutional arrangements as well as by the way in which EIAs are performed in the country. Further, the engagements in networks that facilitate access to knowledge contribute to strengthen the legitimacy of communities' claims. Challenges to and complaints about EIAs are ways in which affected communities try to reclaim their right to participate in decision-making related to their local environment and the development of their communities. Both complaints about EIAs and the use of transnational networks to attain better participation in decision making processes at local levels, illustrated in this study for Guatemala, are common responses to the advancement of extractive industries and hydropower development across Latin America. The widespread of initiatives to challenge EIAs involving international experts in the region show that EIAs have become a sort of a transnational battleground.

A government-driven road-building project, crossing the national park and demarcated indigenous communitarian native land Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS) in the Bolivian Amazon, has caused considerable debate, divisions and conflict. Based on extensive fieldwork in Bolivia, I examine the conflict between 2011 and 2013, focusing on specific cases of micro-politics with examples of changing strategies, local negotiations and strategic framings in the interactions between the indigenous organisations and the state involved in the conflict. I show that the evolution of the conflict has been affected by these micro-political issues, as well as strategic state projects. Secondly, I focus on how discursive framings have legitimised advanced or marginalised certain solutions, ideas and interests.

The objective of this paper is to assess the possibilities and barriers for subaltern actors' participation in environmental policy making. To discuss this issue I focus on the case of the creation of new forest legislation in Bolivia and the involvement and influence of actors such as indigenous forest community organisations and migrant peasant organisations in the process. How can subaltern actors be makers and shapers of environmental policies, and whose interests and demands are considered, included and excluded in these processes? The case study demonstrates that on the one hand, participation has been made possible and facilitated by subaltern strategies such as coalition building among different actors and strategic framings of their demands, combined with public and government agencies' responsiveness and the creation of 'collaborative spaces'. On the other hand, participation has been limited by fragmented processes for inputs, selective inclusions and exclusions of actors and underlying state-society tensions. Finally, the study illustrates how agricultural and land-use interests have influenced the law-making agenda and the development of recent policies affecting forest areas.

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) are instruments required to facilitate large development projects. In this article, we take a closer look at how such processes unfold in the case of hydropower and mining investments in Guatemala. Our findings suggest that here, with ESIAs, the responsibility of engaging with affected communities and citizens is left to the private sector, often with poor public follow-up. This has resulted in companies manipulating processes and strategic engagements with communities and local people to advance corporate interests. We discuss ESIAs as both technical devices as used by the corporate sector, and as possible spaces for public participation. Furthermore, we explore how communities can influence ESIAs for mining and hydroelectric projects in Guatemala, and examine the power relations that determine who are excluded and included in the process. Finally, we analyze how affected communities in Guatemala use ESIAs as means to subvert the order that has been imposed on them.